Movies about ex-convicts and their difficulty assimilating back into society generally begin with the prison release, during which the protagonist typically looks downright miserable. At first thought, I recall the opening of Vincent Gallo's Buffalo '66, which ironically exaggerates the hopelessness of post-incarceration by adding a lack of a public restroom to the list of things the former jailbird is without. But at the beginning of John Crowley's new film, Boy A, the titular young man being turned back into the world is high-browed and smiling from ear to ear. And this change from the expected norm really drew me into the film immediately.

Perhaps the difference is that for most films about ex-cons, the hero doesn't have a very good chance at starting over. For "Boy A," however, there's a literal reinvention taking place. In the first scene, the young man (Andrew Garfield) sits with his caseworker, Terry (Peter Mullan), and discusses the details of his release, which include his receiving a new home, a new job and, most importantly, a new identity -- he chooses the name "Jack." Also, rather symbolically, Terry hands Jack a gift, a pair of sneakers that unintentionally represents the young man's ability to comfortably run away from his former life.

As a good film scholar/geek, I have tried to enjoy the films of Werner Herzog over the years, but I haven't yet seen enough of them to find many that I particularly like, although I respect them as good films. That's a discreet way of telling you that I nearly fell asleep during The Wild Blue Yonder, can't remember a thing about Heart of Glass or Aguirre: The Wrath of God when I watched them for classes in college and haven't yet seen Fitzcarraldo, although it's on my list. In short, I'm not a rabid Herzog fan, which may actually be the reason why I liked his latest film, Rescue Dawn, as much as I did. Based on Herzog's 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, this fictional adaptation has a typical linear narrative structure and tells a clear and unambiguous story.

Christian Bale stars as the aforementioned Dieter Dengler, who has wanted nothing more in life but to be a fighter pilot (thus the title of the documentary). The film is set during the Vietnam War, and you know from the first scene, a group of U.S. Navy pilots watching a lame survival film, that someone's going to get lost in the wilds. Sure enough, Dieter's plane is shot down over Laos, in a strikingly gorgeous and terrifying jungle. Dieter is eventually captured and taken to a POW camp in the middle of the jungle, where the Viet Cong jailers don't seem to be in much better condition than the prisoners. His fellow prisoners include Gene (Jeremy Davies) and Duane (Steve Zahn), all half-crazed from the terrible conditions. However, Dieter is determined to escape -- he wants to survive, and fly again.

Just hours before it was to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, MGM (with the fest's first notable buy) acquired all North American distribution rights to Rescue Dawn, written and directed by Werner Herzog. In the pic, Herzog (who seems to have a knack for telling survival stories) brings us the real-life story of Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), an American pilot whose plane was shot down during a top-secret mission in Viet Cong territory at the start of the Vietnam War.

After he's taken hostage, tortured and held in some sort of POW camp along with other captured prisoners, Dengler plans a daring escape, only to realize the jungles around them are just as dangerous. Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies also star, with MGM planning a December 2006 theatrical release. For more on Rescue Dawn, stay tuned for Martha's TIFF review coming up later this week.